In the far northeast of Hindukush, a deep blue stretch of water wound northward through the mountains.
To the southwest of the water, the small city of Breyak nestled between the mountains and the shore. Many Sea Beastmen lived there.
This was the final city-state in the Temple of Wealth's agreement to install a Magic Furnace. The five before it were Meiyan, home to the Panda-kin and River Tribe; Yafu City, home to the Ape Clan and Antelope Clan; Eagle Rock City, home to the Aiwen and Bird Beastmen; Meteora, the Otter city upriver on Gallop River; and Green Mountain City, home to the Lesser Panda Clan, which they had visited just two days ago.
These six relatively small city-states shared many traits. All were built against mountains and beside water. Their chief deities were either Magic Beast Gods with few worshippers or local Demigods, and their main populations were small Beastmen tribes.
Though these small tribes had few members, they occupied irreplaceable niches among the Beastmen. Some produced unique goods, such as the Panda-kin's gardeners and Magic Pattern paper, the Ape Clan's high-altitude Magic Plants, the homing pigeons and falcons provided by the Aiwen, the Otters' aquatic produce, and the Lesser Pandas' fruit orchards. These tribes helped the Beastmen make better use of the magical resources in the mountains, creating a more complex division of labor and cooperation between industries.
By contrast, Breyak in the northeast was not a city-state loyal to the Royal Court. In fact, Beastmen and Humans were rarely seen in the city.
On September 24, after Landen stepped through the Teleportation Portal Shuyun had built, the first thing he saw was a white whale statue more than thirty meters tall in the city center. A shallow pool, less than half a meter deep, surrounded it.